Claytor breaks from "jail"

According to Georgia Tech's SID, starting RS-junior offensive lineman and Gailey recruit Nick Claytor will declare for this year's NFL Draft. It is unknown at this point what prompted Claytor's decision, whether it be favorable draft prospects, financial reasons, academic troubles, or simply a desire to escape the Single Option before it completely eradicates his pass blocking skills.

Predictably, CPJ Toadies have quickly worked in spinning the news to help exonerate Coach Johnson's lost season, citing this turn of events as evidence that Claytor was a "troublemaker" and "poison" to the team. In their eyes, it's always the fault of the player, and never the fault of the coach.

Claytor was a heavily-recruited prospect and part of Chan Gailey's bountiful 2007 class that included stars such as Josh Nesbitt, Jonathan Dwyer, Morgan Burnett, and Derrick Morgan, the latter three of which all declared for the draft following last season. He joins the pair of Clyde Yandell and Joseph Gilbert, who transferred after Johnson failed to get them admitted to graduate school at Tech, as Gailey offensive linemen which have been lost early in the past two seasons.

Johnson likes to blame Gailey's recruiting for the poor offensive line play on his 2010 team, but he clearly has no one to blame but himself. What other schools have players of significance jumping ship to the FCS for their senior year because their coach can't pull a few strings to get them admitted to graduate school? Now with Claytor gone and paper-thin depth along the offensive line, the excuses will surely be flying faster than ever as we head into the already ill-omened 2011 campaign.